This article was originally published in Progress on April 11th, 2019. As windy talk of a ‘truly global Britain’ fades away, a recent film makes the case for international solidarity – though less by its merits than its flaws. ‘A Private War’ is a dramatisation…
James Bloodworth is one of the few writers around who is as committed to human rights abroad as he is to economic democracy at home. In fact, he’s for both everywhere. This marks him out among a commentariat which, depending on ideology, will either neglect…
In Vladimir Nabokov’s 1947 novel Bend Sinister, a simple-minded supporter of the fanatical Average Man party, which has just taken power, describes the corruption and hypocrisy of the old regime: “Well, firstly, we were made to pay impossible taxes; secondly, all those Parliament ministers and…
The newly revamped Firing Line on PBS has in common with other TV and movie “reboots” the benefit of a familiar name and the burden of meeting expectations. Sadly, the new show, hosted by political commentator Margaret Hoover, is more hampered than helped by its…
This article was originally published in Open Democracy on November 11th, 2017 (Remembrance Sunday). For the German painter Otto Dix, the First World War really was “all over by Christmas” – only it was Christmas 1918, after he had spent four years on the front…
Review of Kill All Normies by Angela Nagle, originally published in Medium on October 19th, 2017. Is there something about the internet which brings out the worst in people? It’s a question one has reason to consider every day. But a new book by Angela…
This article was originally published on politics.co.uk on October 13th, 2017. Having seen a fair bit of Chris Rock’s stand up comedy, I wasn’t very surprised to hear him use a six-letter word that rhymes with ‘digger’ on Friday’s Graham Norton Show on the BBC.…
Review of The Rage by Julia Ebner, originally published in Progress magazine on October 5th, 2017. The Rage – out today from IB Tauris – is part dedicated to the memory of Jo Cox, the slain member of parliament who suffered the kind of death…
Review of I am Not Your Negro, about James Baldwin, originally published in Little Atoms on April 5th, 2017. I’ll always remember the mind-expanding moment when as a younger man I watched footage of James Baldwin, cigarette in hand, looking down the barrel of a…
This essay was originally published in Little Atoms on January 20th, 2017. As the nation’s political leaders jostled for position after the Brexit vote in the EU referendum, a popular hot take among lazy journalists was to say how it was all “just like Game…